Sr Release Manager

AstraZeneca is a global, innovation-driven biopharmaceutical business that focuses on the discovery, development and commercialization of prescription medicines for some of the world's most serious diseases. AstraZeneca is one of only a handful of pure-play biopharmaceutical companies to span the entire value chain of a medicine from discovery, early- and late-stage development to manufacturing and distribution, and the global commercialization of primary care, specialty care-led and specialty care medicines that transform lives. At AstraZeneca, we're proud to have an extraordinary workplace culture that drives innovation and teamwork. Here, we encourage our teams to express diverse perspectives - making you feel valued, energized and rewarded for your ideas and creativity.

AstraZeneca is currently looking for a Release Manager to join our R&D IT Solution Delivery Team to manage delivery excellence for SaaS Saama product, part of Operational Clinical Development Platform and is used across late science teams across all therapeutic areas. You will be a part of our core BizDevOps team therefore will be responsible to work cross functionally with other team members such as Platform Lead, Product Analyst, Business Analysts, DevOps Engineers and key stakeholders such as BRM, Product Owners and Quality Managers.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Ownership of end-to-end Release Management in SaaS Saama product. This encompasses enablement and ownership of processes, tooling, engineering standards, value stream, artefacts and metrics.
• Proactive identification of optimizations and improvements of processes ensuring delivery excellence, maximising productivity both in functional and integration components of the product. Application of Capability best-practice stemming from the Solution Delivery Release Team.
• Report on process compliance, KPI's and any process performance trends.
• Release Scheduling across Scrum Teams and Platform Modules.
• Providing Release Notes to the appropriate stakeholders and ensuring releases are planned well and executed efficiently, including regular study configuration releases.
• Change & Configuration Management compliance across GxP environment.
• Release Capacity management and forecasting with the delivery team, based on a consolidated backlog.
• Leadership in SAFe ceremonies such as PI Planning, Platform SCRUM, Sprint Plannings. Run Change Control Board to ensure the establish release and configuration management process is followed to prioritize Change requests, Defects, BAU fix changes as part of ongoing release or the Product backlog.
• Manage deployment planning, implementations and optimize JIRA workflows.
• Identify and Implement opportunities for automation uplift, including embedding CI/CD tooling, automation testing, and practices.
• Leadership and Coordination of Delivery and Business Teams in order to complete the Sprint goals.
• Partnering with the Business on Product Management to understand their expectations, and coordinate Business Change activity.
• Management of risks and issues that affect agreed release scope, schedule, and quality.
• Release dependency management between upstream and downstream systems.
• Help influence the decision making among Product Owners and Platform Lead/DevOps Leads to prioritize change requests during planning and/or execution.
• Ensuring the wider Operational Clinical Development teams are aligning with the Release Management processes and aware of any future improvements/enhancements.
• Produce required documentation for the releases (e.g. Master Validation Plan, Master Test Approach, Validation Report, Change & Configuration Management SOPs).

MANDATORY SKILLS:

• 5 years of experience within relevant IT areas.
• Deep knowledge and understanding of Release Management practices and principles.
• Proficiency in planning, change management, and problem-solving and ability to resolve issues of a highly complex and strategic nature.
• Experience in agile delivery of business applications to a globally distributed user base.
• Experience in managing and delivering business change through IT projects.
• Ability to interpret and communicate technical information into business language.
• Ability to manage negotiations, expectations, and solutions across complex groups.
• Experience in managing and sustaining diverse stakeholder relationships.
• Quality mindset is the must.

PREFERRED SKILLS:

• Experience with regulated (GxP) systems and processes + knowledge of biopharma industry.
• Experience in introduction and support of CI/CD practices in IT products, including Continuous Testing.
• Working knowledge of SAFe Lean-Agile.
• Able to process and analyze information.
• Proven ability to operate across multiple domains and geographies.

EDUCATIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

• Bachelor’s degree in business information systems preferred but not required. We will hire self-taught engineers without a formal education given that you have evidence of rich history in IT.

*Expectation of working in the office 3 days a week statement
When we put unexpected teams in the same room, we ignite ambitious thinking with the power to inspire life-changing medicines. In-person working give us the platform we need to connect, work at pace and challenge perceptions. That’s why we work, on average, a minimum of three days per week from the office. But that doesn’t mean we’re not flexible. We balance the expectation of being in the office while respecting individual flexibility. Join us in our outstanding and bold world.

AstraZeneca is an equal opportunity employer. AstraZeneca will consider all qualified applicants for employment without discrimination on grounds of disability, sex or sexual orientation, pregnancy or maternity leave status, race or national or ethnic origin, age, religion or belief, gender identity or re-assignment, marital or civil partnership status, protected veteran status (if applicable) or any other characteristic protected by law.*

AstraZeneca embraces diversity and equality of opportunity. We are committed to building an inclusive and diverse team representing all backgrounds, with as wide a range of perspectives as possible, and harnessing industry-leading skills. We believe that the more inclusive we are, the better our work will be. We welcome and consider applications to join our team from all qualified candidates, regardless of their characteristics. We comply with all applicable laws and regulations on non-discrimination in employment (and recruitment), as well as work authorisation and employment eligibility verification requirements.